But my argument isn’t about specific legislation. It is about whether or not I have the right to determine for myself what “acceptable risk” is.

I couldn’t give a fig about the specifics of radiation – or any other hazard for that matter. What I care about is that I should not have my rights deminished because someone else things that I can’t make up my own mind if I am properly educated in the risk I intend to undertake, where that risk affects no-one but me, or is of such a theoritcally low value that I can reasonably ignore it and indemnify anyone who thinks they may otherwise be accountable.

but merely the fact that despite much of the legislation being available on the web

That is irrelevant. If I am to go into a hazardous area I may need to be educated there and then – not engage in researching the matter before hand – hell I might not even know there is potential danger unless I’m told (as seen from a laypersons POV).

Enough. End of Subject. We’re going round and round in circles and getting nowhere.

Having looked at the penultimate photo posted by f4, I’d swear it was actually placed like that on purpose – graffiti an’ all.

If people can’t be bothered to educate themselves (when the information is freely available), why expect others to do it for them?

You all seem to be missing the point.

If I have to pay for that “education” or “information” in order to be able to excercise my right to freely determine what I can or cannot do, then sobeit. If I am required to pass a test of some kind in order to etc…, then again, sobeit. But to throw a blanket over my right to determine what I can or cannot do is wrong in, and of, itself.

Now, I understand that this cannot always be the case, for logistical and many other reason, so I accept the status quo on those grounds, and those grounds alone. But please, saying that we all need to be nannied because we cannot, even with proper information and education, be held responsible for our own decisions is utter nonsense IMV.

I am saying there are spheres of knowledge in which I am quite happy to accept that others know more than I.

As do I, and so would I, but that doesn’t mean you should make laws to that effect.

And, please, let us not put this on a personal level – I think the first sentence was somewhat beneath you, Damien.

This assumes that everyone that wants to take a known risk is capable of taking the information on board. Not everyone is, see my previous post, how do you establish that they fully comprehend the known risk? There we go again sounding patronising, but not everyone for various reasons would understand that staying in a cockpit for too long might make them slightly more likely to develop a cancer. You cannot expect museums with their meagre resources to administer this kind of approach simply to satisfy those that want extra contemplation time inside an aircraft.

I mean we all like sitting in cockpits and going dakka dakka, but seriously…

I’m sorry, but there are laws against discrimination, too. And this argument would seem to fall into that trap.

So Rob, you’re telling me now that it’s acceptable that, for instance someone who’s totally unskilled can set himself up as an electrician for instance (because he feels he knows better) and go into someone’s house and kill them and their family through negligence and it’s better for all of us if there’s no law to protect us from that because otherwise it’ll interfere with his personal liberties.

No, and that is the exact opposite of what I am saying. Are you reading my posts, or someone elses and attributing them to me?

Ian
I agree with everything you say.
At present I’m involved in helping (in a very small way) to implement the latest round of Health and Safety legislation for the electrical industry.

Every day I get somone on the phone bleating about how they know better.
The usual argument being ‘I know better, I’ve been doing this every day since 1492 and when I was an apprentice we even used to connect this stuff up standing naked in a bucket of salt water etc, etc’.

What of course they don’t see is the file of accidents that my engineering manager keeps in his desk drawer that are currently trundling through the courts.

Gives one a very different perspective.
Later
Andy

It isn’t a matter of whether one knows better or not, in my view. It is a matter of individual freedom and choice. Guidelines are one thing. Making them laws interferes with the freedom of the individual, and where it is unnecessary must be avoided.